Air conditioner blamed for house fire

ALBANY, GA (WALB) - The cord of an over worked window air conditioner is blamed for a fire that gutted an Albany duplex.

This is all that is left of the unit on East Society. The fire started around last night. Kathy Williams was not at home in this apartment, but her Mother Latisha Williams was in the other side of the duplex with her two grandchildren. They got out OK, but the family lost everything.

Albany Fire Department Chief James Carswell said "The unit itself needed to cool down. It can't run 24 hours a day. It's not designed to run 24 hours, and if you do it that way it's going to overheat somewhere."

Chief Carswell says make sure you don't cover the cord on your window air conditioner, and occasionally turn off the unit to cool down.